15 best strategy games for Android

Strategy is among the oldest game types in human history. Whether it’s chess, board games, or even some card games, we’ve been playing strategy games since long before there was ever a computer. Strategy games have come a long way, but the basic premise of using your brain to beat your opponents remains true even to this day. It’s a fantastic way to test yourself to see how creative you can be. Here are the best strategy games on Android!

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Age of Civilizations

Price: $2.14

Age of Civilizations is a mix between a strategy game and a board game. It has a lot of the same qualities as Risk, where your job is to obtain territories from other civilizations. You’ll have access to a variety of scenarios, such as World War I and II as well as a modern world scenario. You can also create your own scenarios to challenge yourself. It also contains 193 civilizations, two planets, and some interesting mechanics. It’s complex, difficult, and highly addictive. Best of all, there are no in-app purchases. It’s one of the better, simpler strategy games.

Bloons TD 6

Price: $4.99 with in-app purchases

Bloons TD 6 is the latest tower defense game in the long-running series. It feature a lot of elements from prior titles. You play as monkeys and you defend from the bad guys. The game includes 19 towers, three upgrade paths per tower, and tons of mini-upgrades. The game also supports offline play, new game modes, various difficulties, and a lot more. This is easily the best tower defense release in 2018 (aside from possibly Defend the Cake) and it’s a must-try for strategy enthusiasts. It runs for $4.99 with additional in-app purchases if you choose to pay for them.

Card Thief

Price: Free / $1.99

Card Thief is one of the more unique strategy games. It’s a mix between strategy and a card game. Your goal is to move around to avoid detection. You’ll have equipment, stealth points, and more to help you avoid the guards and finish the level. It boasts a play time of two to three minutes per play. That makes it great for casual gamers. You can can download the game for free and unlock the full version for $1.99.

Chess by AI Factory Limited

Price: Free / $0.99

Chess is one of the oldest strategy games. Chess Free is probably the best chess game on mobile. The graphics aren’t a lot to look at. However, you’ll have 12 difficulty levels across two game modes, ELO Ratings, save and load games, local multiplayer, a chess tutor, and a bunch of other cool stuff. It’s about as complete of a chess game as you can find. It utilizes the Treebeard Chess Engine. It’s the same one from MSN Chess. It’s completely free with no in-app purchases. There are advertisements. However, you can pay $0.99 to remove those in the pro version.

The Escapists

Price: $6.49

The Escapists is a charming strategy game. Players basically escape from prison. There are a variety of ways to do it. You can dig under the prison, swipe a security guard uniform, or find some other creative way. Players also have to fit in with prison life, avoid getting caught, and find places to stash their ill-gotten goods. It’s a surprisingly complex game despite its retro graphics. There are six prison scenarios to play, It’s definitely something different and the developers recently added some stuff to the game. It’s not bad at all.

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Ironhide Game Studio strategy games

Price: Free / Up to $4.99 each (with in-app purchases)

Ironhide Game Studio has a few of the most popular strategy games on mobile. They include the three Kingdom Rush games, a popular series of fantasy-themed tower defense games. 2017 saw the release of Iron Marines, another tower defense game. All four titles are excellent. They include various levels, various bad guys, various towers, and various power ups to swing the battle one way or another. Each one has in-app purchases. However, they’re avoidable with a little grinding and some patience. They range from $0.99 to $4.99 depending on the game. These are all excellent strategy titles.

Kairosoft Co games

Price: Varies

Kairosoft is a game development studio that has a ton of interesting strategy games. Some of their more popular titles include Game Dev Story, Ninja Village, Anime Studio Story, Grand Prix Story, and others. Currently, their collection spans dozens of games with free and paid versions of most of them. The games are challenging, but not too difficult, and it’s easy to sink several hours into pretty much any of them. We recommend giving Game Dev Story and Ninja Village a try first. Click the button below to view their entire collection!

Machines at War 3

Price: $6.99

Machines at War 3 is one of the better real-time strategy games. Your job is to beat the bad guys and save some scientists. It features a deep story that covers 21 missions. It also features 130 different types of units and tech to build, unlimited random map skirmishes, online multiplayer, and more. There is even an unlimited random skirmish mode in case you just want to kill a few minutes. The game is delightfully challenging as any good strategy game should be. It’s a tad expensive at $6.99 but there are no in-app purchases.

Motorsport Manager Mobile 3

Price: $3.99 with in-app purchases

Motorsport Manager Mobile 3 is one of the better and newer strategy games on mobile. You get to build your very own motorsport team from the ground up. That includes hiring drivers, mechanics, building a car, and racing to win. The game features small obstacles like weather changes that the player must adapt to. In addition, there are difficulty settings, rule changes, and all kinds of other things that keep the game from getting too stale. It’s one of many strategy-simulation games on mobile. This one just has solid mechanics and it’s fun to play, even for non-motorsport fans.

Out There: Ω Edition

Price: $3.99

Out There: Ω Edition is one of the most difficult strategy games that we’ve played. The objective in this game is to survive in the vastness of space after your character wakes up from a cryo-chamber. You’ll have to manage things like your oxygen levels and other resources as you travel, encounter various forms of alien life, and slowly repair your ship. It’s about as hard as it sounds. It also has Google Play Games achievements, four alternate endings, and each new game is freshly created so no two plays will be the same.

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Plague Inc

Price: Free with in-app purchases

Plague Inc is one of the most popular and successful strategy games of all time. The premise is that you’re supposed to infect the entire world with a disease. Thus, you must develop and evolve a disease that is strong enough to do that. You’ll have 12 disease types to play around with along with save/load functionality so you can keep going between play sessions. It’s quite a complex game. The developers have also done a great job adding in expansions over the years. Even the CDC likes this game. Yes, really.

Pocket City

Price: Free / $3.99

Pocket City is a strategy simulation game similar to Sim City. Try saying that three times fast. Anyway, this game has a lot to like about it. You build a city with all the various elements. Players control things like cash flow, traffic, citizen happiness, and more. Additionally, you can trigger both fun and horrible things to spice it up a bit. The game is quite simple, contains no microtransactions, and it works offline without any problems. There is also a cloud save feature as well. The free version contains ads while the premium version does not. They should otherwise play about the same way. Rollercoaster Tycoon is another strategy simulator that we highly recommend as well.

Rusted Warfare

Price: $1.99

Rusted Warfare is a retro style real-time strategy game with a lot going for it. It boasts a more hardcore RTS experience with no in-app purchases, no ads, and no pay-to-win mechanics. It also boasts over 40 player controlled units, various defenses, online and offline multiplayer, and support for mice and keyboards. The graphics aren’t winning any awards, but frankly that’s about the only ding we have on this one. Even then, it’s not bad if you’re into retro games. It even has a custom game mode for practice, fun, and goofing around with the game’s mechanics. This one should probably be more popular.

Supercell games

Price: Free with in-app purchases

Supercell is the developer of three of the most successful and popular strategy games ever. They are Clash of Clans, Clash Royale, and Boom Beach. Clash of Clans and Boom Beach are RTS strategy games where you build a base, defend it against other players, and then attack other players. Clash Royale is a card game similar in scope to Hearthstone. Each game boasts a massive player base and that’s good news because they’re all online multiplayer games. Each one is also a freemium game.

Vainglory

Price: Free with in-app purchases

Vainglory is arguably the most popular MOBA on Android right now. It features three-on-three online battles that last up to 20 minutes each. You can play as many as you want without restriction. The game boasts 60fps and a sub-30ms control response which caters to the hardcore fans of the genre. There are quite a few heroes available and more are frequently added. You can also customize them with skins if you prefer. There are casual, ranked, and quick play modes depending on what kind of challenge you’re looking for. It’s also popular with eSports fans. Arena of Valor is another excellent (and newer) MOBA as well. Either one works great.

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If we missed any of the best strategy games for Android, tell us about them in the comments!